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Wednesday, 6 June 2012

The Camping Pocket Bible by Caroline Mills

They say staycationing is the new going abroad and that camping is the cooler than ever. I need no conversion; until I sold one of them recently we were a three tent household. The blurb for this book offered tips for beginners through to fun ideas for the more experienced camper. We camp a handful of times a year for up to 5 nights so we're not novices or super-experienced and I was hoping to find some useful info.

What I got instead was an incredibly basic guide that would be suitable for new campers with no common sense. At points I was stunned that some of the content was seriously included. There were 5 tips for things to do while camping that you don't need any equipment for that included looking at the stars and watching the sun rise or set. Honestly.

I was looking forward to the promised fantastic food ideas for a camp stove, but apart from a recipe for what was essentially a fry up and one for pancakes the rest were all for BBQs, something we never use. When it got to a checklist for a repairs kit I got my hopes up that something useful would follow but there was nothing on how to use the bits mentioned.

There was nothing in this book that you couldn't find online via a search engine, although I am sure for someone taking their first trip ever it could have a few gems in there. I can't remember if I picked this up as a freebie or if it 99p - it was definitely one or the other - but if I had paid the current £4.80 price for the kindle edition I would be seriously unhappy.

This book tried to cover too much ground in too little detail and in places just came off as patronising. The only thing this book has done is remind me how much I love camping and get me thinking about getting our kit together for the first trip of the year soon.